Grassley Requests Zyprexa Marketing Documents

As part of a Senate Finance Committee investigation, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has requested information from Eli Lilly regarding the marketing of its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa.

In a letter, Grassley asked for documents including emails, letters and reports used by plaintiffs' steering committees in several Zyprexa lawsuits.

Eli Lilly has agreed to settle the lawsuits, which alleged that before September 2003, Zyprexa's warning information did not adequately convey the risk of hyperglycemia and diabetes. Approximately 1,200 claims out of 18,000 involved in the suit remain outstanding, according to the company.

James Gottstein, a lawyer representing mentally ill patients who sued the state of Alaska for compelling patients to take psychiatric drugs against their will, passed internal Eli Lilly documents on to The New York Times. The newspaper quoted the documents in a series of articles that said Eli Lilly had downplayed Zyprexa's risks, a charge the company denied.

Grassley previously attempted to get the Zyprexa documents from David Egilman, an expert witness in a Zyprexa case. However, Egilman told the committee that he had to return the documents because Eli Lilly claimed some of them were confidential. Grassley suspended his request for the documents until that dispute was resolved, he said.

Earlier this year, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled that the confidential documents had to be returned and further distribution had to stop. Eli Lilly said 10 people, including Gottstein and Egilman, possessed the documents. The Senate committee did not receive any protected documents about Zyprexa from Gottstein or Egilman, Grassley said.

The committee needs the documents to review the company's marketing habits and ensure that appropriate treatments were provided to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, according to Grassley.

Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) also sent a letter to Eli Lilly and two other drugmakers requesting promotional and research information as part of the committee's investigation into pharmaceutical marketing.

Grassley asked Eli Lilly to give him the Zyprexa documents in an electronic and searchable format by April 25.